Filming as part of the Festival (photo provided by AMEF)
The first stage of the Arts Meets Environment Festival consisted of a 10 week consultation period with young people in the Rockingham Forest area to inform a feasibility study and business plan.
Young people living in the Rockingham Forest are faced with poor transport facilities, particularly within the border of Northamptonshire and often travel outside the county for leisure activities. This project aims to provide workshops and training throughout the Rockingham Forest and offers free transport to participants living in the area to travel to workshops and festival days.
Filming as part of the Festival (photo provided by AMEF)
For the same reason there is a continuing trend of young people moving out of local rural communities for employment opportunities available in the region's large towns and cities. The number of rural businesses and services are reducing, cutting the number of jobs available. In addition, rural businesses often employ older people rather than younger people, possibly due to a perception of young people not possessing essential key skills.
To counter these trends there is a need to forge links between young people and existing rural businesses. This is part of the aim of the Festival, making the young people aware of the job opportunities that are there, as well as making the businesses aware of the pool of local talent which they could tap into. This will develop new opportunities for young people and businesses alike, capitalising on the talents of local people. Those skills and talents can be developed through involving the young people in the business management side of the Festival, as well as in the creative use of arts and leisure, developing skills that can be transferable.
CCP received two grant awards - the England Leader+ Programme awarded £151, 471.59 and the Big Lottery Young People's Fund awarded £64, 916 match funding to support the Festival programme, a grand total of £216, 387.59.
A Project Co-ordinator was appointed in March 2006 to oversee the Arts Meets Environment Festival programme. Young people aged between 14 and 27 were encouraged to join a Festival Committee that makes decisions about workshop, training and events' content. Following the demise of the Northamptonshire Youth Service, progress to contact young people was hampered but appropriate organisations are now spreading the word and AMEF is attracting participants as well as Committee members.
AMEF Case Study